How I Made It: Patsy Carney Managing director, EirGen Pharma

MBA thesis helped me to come up with formula for success in pharma business

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irGen Pharma, a pharmaceutical manufacturer based in Waterford, announced last month that it was to create 30 new jobs on top of the 50 it already provided.

The company, which develops, licenses and manufactures oncology drugs for the global market, is on track to turn over €10m this year. Profitable since it was set up seven years ago by Patsy Carney and Tom Brennan, it sounds like a success story.

Carney, though, is nervous of blowing his own trumpet. “It’s not ‘how I made it’ for a start, it’s ‘how we made it’,” he said, referring to Brennan. “And we haven’t made it yet.”

His diffidence seems unusual in a successful entrepreneur, but perhaps that’s because Carney never had any intention of becoming one. The 48-year-old Askeaton native started his career studying industrial chemistry at the University of Limerick.